Our Lord's sayings on the Cross. Part 3

Our Lord's sayings on the Cross. Part 3.

Friday, August 15, 2008

The most dramatic exhibition of the character and nature of God is revealed by the divine love and divine omnipotence in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The seven sayings of our Lord when He was on the cross.

LUK 23:34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.

The first statement dealt with the word forgiveness for His enemies.

The second one dealt with salvation, LUK 23:43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

The third statement from the cross dealt with the word compassion. JOH 19:26-27 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!" Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own {household.}

The fourth statement deals with anguish, MAR 15:34, MAT 27:46.
The fourth cry indicated that He was being judged for us. This statement shows us how truly human TLJC was, that He could be forsaken of His God. God did forsake His Son, but He loved Him as much when He forsook Him as at any other period.

ISA 53:10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,

It is an awful thing for a person in hell to be without God; but, as far as their own consciousness is concerned, they are so hardened that they are incapable of knowing the beauty of a relationship with God from whom they are separated forever.

MAT 3:17 “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
1JO 3:5 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
1PE 2:22 He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;
HEB 13:5 for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
ROM 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Nothing in the whole universe ROM 8:39 “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The cry “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” also points to His love for us.

But on the cross He did not weep, He bled; and He not merely bled, He died; He died spiritually being forsaken of God and then He died physically.

ACT 5:41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for {His} name.

The fifth cry on the cross can be identified by the word suffering,
JOH 19:28.

This fifth Cross-utterance of the Savior, “I thirst,” followed right after the three hours of darkness, during which the light of God’s countenance had been withdrawn from the Sin-Bearer.

The very fact that He did now “thirst” evidences His perfect submission. In the volume of that Book which expressed the will of God, it was written that He should thirst! The first great lesson from the fifth phrase is the importance of the Word of God.

That we might have the joy and the realization and the reverence, the absorption and the interest that the Lord Jesus Christ had in the Scripture!

PSA 69:21 They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

He had hung on that cross for six hours, and had passed through suffering un-paralleled: nevertheless His mind was perfectly clear and His memory entirely unimpaired.

The first drink of vinegar and gall, commonly given to criminals to deaden their pains, the Lord refused.

JOH 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’”
MAT 10:24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.”

The one Who said JOH 7:37 “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink,” was Himself thirsty.
LUK 16:24 And he cried out and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.”

The sixth saying of the cross can be described by the word victory.
When the Lord Jesus Christ said “it is finished” He evidenced the fact that salvation was complete. Consequently, when He said, “It is finished,” He made it very clear that to add anything to the finished work of salvation is sheer blasphemy! "It is finished”= Tetelestai!

There was His resurrection, ascension, and session on high, but these are the fruit and reward of that work which He completed.

It was the declaration on the part of the Divine Redeemer that all for which He came from heaven to earth to do, was now done.

That all which was needful to reveal the glorious character of God had now been accomplished.

That everything necessary for the putting away of the sins of His people, providing for them a perfect standing before God, securing for them an eternal inheritance and fitting them for it, had all been done.

The seventh and final phrase can be described by the word, contentment, LUK 23:46.

JOH 10:17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.”

JOH 10:18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

Upon His physical death, His human spirit went into the presence of the Father, His soul went into Hades to a compartment known as Paradise and His body went into the grave to wait for that glorious moment some three days later when the body would be rejoined by the soul and the spirit, and Jesus Christ would rise from the dead - literally and bodily.

There is a change in the vocative from “My God” of the previous phrase to “Father.”

PSA 31:5 Into Thy hand I commit my spirit; Thou hast ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth.

JOH 7:46 “Never did a man speak the way this man speaks.”

How instructive to us is this great truth that the Incarnate Word lived on the Inspired Word!

The first statement dealt with the word forgiveness for His enemies.
LUK 23:34 “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
The second one dealt with salvation, LUK 23:39-42.
The third statement from the cross is found in JOH 19:26-27 and dealt with the word compassion.
JOH 19:26-27 “Woman, behold, your son!” “Behold, your mother!”

The fourth statement dealt with anguish -
MAT 27:46 “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
The fifth cry on the cross can be identified by the word suffering - JOH 19:28 “I am thirsty.”
The sixth saying of the cross can be described by the word victory - JOH 19:30 “It is finished!”
The seventh and final phrase can be described by the word contentment -
LUK 23:46 “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.”